The present invention relates in general to foldable or instant tents, and more particularly to a retractable pole assembly for a foldable tent.
Foldable tents are known in the art and have become very popular in recent years. In fact, every major retail outlet sells a foldable tent or instant tent in one form or another. In general, foldable tents comprise a tent fabric coupled to a collapsible frame assembly, pre-assembled, at a radially inner space of the erected frame assembly so that the tent fabric and frame assembly could be collectively opened and folded. However, foldable tents are manufactured in different configurations with a variety of features. Improvements of existing features continue to be made and new features are being developed as well.
More recently, whether an instant tent or a traditional assemble-to-use tent, providing sufficient ventilation within tents has become a requirement for the consumer. This is accomplished by providing a permeable material around a roof portion of the cabin portion of the tent and covering the permeable portion with a separate rain fly. It is also beneficial to have the rain fly cover windows and doors of the tent to provide the tent with additional protection from water leakage. For instant tents, this additional step of covering the cabin portion of the tent with a rain fly defeats the meaning of an “instant tent.” Often times applying the rain fly requires more than one person and is time consuming as the users must also manually secure the rain fly to a bottom portion of the tent or to a ground surface.
In order to eliminate the need of a separate rain fly on instant tents, the present inventor developed an instant tent with an integrated rain fly, described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0055525A1 (application Ser. No. 13/295,396, filed Nov. 14, 2011) (“the '396 application), which is incorporated herein by reference. The instant tent with integrated rain fly allows the user to simply open the tent for use and fold the tent for storage without having to assemble and disassemble a separate rain fly. This is accomplished by providing collapsible eave or awning structures above the permeable portions of the cabin portion of the tent.
Each collapsible eave structure includes an eave pole extending from a hub and a tent fabric or eave portion extending from the cabin portion of the tent. The eave portion is attached to the eave pole by attachment means extending from the eave portion including at an outer end of the eave pole. One problem encountered with this collapsible eave structure is that the eave portion could become loose or flimsy which could cause rain water to accumulate thereon. Another problem associated with the collapsible eave structure is that a great deal of stress is concentrated on the end of the eave portion where a seam is formed for the hook attachment. These stresses could be caused either when the tent is in the open configuration or when the tent is folded.